The country's 44 fund houses together had an average assets under management (AUM) of Rs 11.06 lakh crore at the end of December 2014, compared to Rs 13.39 lakh crore registered in December-end last year, as per latest data available with Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

Fund houses are upbeat about the industry's prospects for the New Year as well.

Given the sluggish trends in the real estate market and continued fall in gold prices, the mutual fund (MF) industry expects to attract a larger share of the Indian households' savings from this year.

The top five fund houses -- HDFC MF, ICICI Prudential MF, Reliance MF, Birla Sunlife MF and UTI MF -- retained their top five positions from last year.

HDFC MF continued to hold its numero uno position with an average AUM of Rs 1.78 lakh crore, a surge in asset base by 18.5 per cent, followed by ICICI Prudential MF, which saw its asset base growing by 26 per cent to Rs 1.72 lakh crore.